Vincent Gerard

This is my hubby. Also known as Vinny, Dowey, Dowebally, and (as of last night) Pickle Juice. (You may learn that I have an affinity for nicknames, comes from my daddy!) Unbelievably, the hubs and I have been married for 9 years! I can't believe it! Seems like just yesterday I was a freshman in college and my friend introduced me to this hunky senior with a hot red car! Vince is working hard to support our family and traveling here and there. Vince is a WONDERFUL father and his girls (all of us) are the most important things to him!

Barclay Kathryn

What to say? I'm Barclay, usually known as Barclay (not much you can do with Barclay). I was an elementary teacher for fours years until I had Bella. Now I am doing the job I have wanted to do ALL of my life, being a mom. I love these two girls more than I can possibly express and it is my joy and privilege to be able to spend each day with them. I recently entered the blog frontier, and although my blog followers will probably be able to be counted on one hand, I thought it would be exciting to be a part of something so neat. I love that there are many other moms out there facing the same joys, hardships, questions, surprises, and challenges that I am. I also hope to be a sort of medium to spread awareness for others that need prayers, help, or just someone to walk through life with!

Isabella Kathryn

Usually referred to as Bella. As well as Bells, Bellie, Belly Boo, Bellsie Bubs, Bubs, Bubba, Bells and Whistles.... Bella is our first born daughter. She is 6. Bella enjoys school, reading, riding her training-wheel free bike, she could color and write for hours, she loves singing to the Momma Mia soundtrack, anything princess or pink, having bows in her hair, playing dress up, and her little sisters! God blessed us with Bella a month early but she was perfectly healthy. In six years she has become such a bright, outgoing, sensitive, and fearless little girl. Bella really is the sweetest girl you will ever meet. She is eager to please. If she hurts or disappoints someone it literally crushes her to tears. This last year she asked Jesus to be her Lord and Savior and we could not be more proud!! Love this sweet, blonde, blue eyed beauty!

Bryanna Karina

Usually known as Brynn. As well as Brynnie, Miley, Miley Moo, Geegs, Geegers, Brynnie Boo, and many more. Ten days before Bella turned 2 years old we were blessed with another beautiful, healthy girl by planned c-section. This time I was able to see my baby right after birth, watch her get weighed, bathed, etc. I couldn't wait for Bella to meet her. Brynn is now 4 and keeps me laughing all day long. Brynn, since she was about 2 months old has been the smiliest baby I have ever met. All you need to do is look at her and she will flash you a world class smile. Brynn is smiley, more shy and reserved about things than her big sis, can be quite the clown when she feels safe or gets in a silly mood, amazingly brilliant, she's been speaking full sentences since she was 19 months and continues to amaze us with what comes out of her mouth. She loves doing whatever her big sister is doing, dressing up, looking at books, her blankie, being held, twirling in her dresses, singing, and dancing whenever she hears music! Brynn is my compassionate baby, she hates to see people hurting. We just love this sweet, shy, snuggly, smiling little girl!

Brooklyn Blythe

Also known as Brookie, Brookie Cookie, Cookie Lu, Lulu B just to name a few. Sweet, sweet Brooklyn is our family's latest addition! We welcomed Brookie into our family on August 23rd 2010 at 12:23pm by planned c-section. I was nervous she would be a bit high maintenance since she came out screaming bloody murder and continued to wail anytime anyone touched her- get her footprints, take her temperature, etc. Amazingly, she would instantly stop the moment the Hubs touched her or began talking to her. And since her birthday, we have barely heard a peep out of her..... And fast forward 18 months, she definitely makes plenty of peeps now! :) We are full blown in the the terrible twos (which IMO last from 18-36 months) I believe. To make matters worse she's also cutting her 4 molars. She definitely knows what she wants but can't quite articulate it, so gets frustrated. Eating is also a hit or miss these days which is very foreign to me. Mixed with the crabby days though is the funniest personality ever. She is a riot! She LOVES chasing after her big sisters or having them chase and imitate her. She also has this adorable chubby face and will peek out of the corner of her eyes and just melt your heart! She is definitely shy at first but if you can get through to her she will keep you in stitches with her antics. We love you little BB and couldn't ask for a sweeter addition to our family!

Monday, June 29, 2009

So on to the rest of our Sunday in Minnesota. So after playing at the park we headed home to get changed for the Haglund (my mom's mom's side of the family) Family Reunion-the reason for our trip. We drove about 30 minutes away and arrived at one of my mom's cousin's home. My mom's oldest brother, Mark (her other older brother and his family of 5 kiddos couldn't make it) made the trip from Texas. It was so great to see him, especially since we haven't seen him since our wedding and he had never met the girls!

Here Uncle Mark is sharing with us pictures of his girlfriend and trips that they have taken.

So after some chatting and yummy food it was time to get some pictures of the whole clan and then individual families.

I had to grab a quick pic of this, this was the paparazzi that was taking pictures of all the individual families! : )Here's the whole clan!

Here's our side! Sadly, the girls were napping, my grandparents have passed away, and Uncle Chris and his family of 7 were not there. On another note, boy, does my Uncle Mark look like my grandpa!

Here are the 3 remaining children of the 8 original children that began the Haglund family, well sort of. : ) Uncle Jim, Aunt Peg, and Uncle Dick. You can definitely tell they're related! My grandma looked just like them! : )

Here are their spouses and Aunt Rosali, who is Uncle Warren's wife but he passes away 2 years ago. Aunt Rosali was telling me fascinating stories about Uncle Warren, including one about how he was apart of the attack on D day. While in a trench he was shot in the head, but luckily his helmet saved his life. Unfortunately his best friend next to him was killed. Aunt Rosali said Uncle Warren had nightmares for the first 10 years of their marriage. I appreciated so much that she shared those stories with me. Also Aunt Rosali, apparently, saves everything and gave my mom such a precious gift. All the years, you know before email, while my mom and her brothers were growing up my grandma had written Aunt Rosali many letters. Well Aunt R saved them all and gave them to my mom, isn't that priceless!? Finally the girls woke up and Brynn woke up MAD. Not sure why, maybe waking up in yet another new place. So we didn't stick around much longer after she woke up.

Where we were was only about 30 minutes from the Hub's mom's side of the family, so we decided we were just too close to not stop by. So we hopped in the car and made the quick trip. The highlight of the visit for the girls was their cat, Abigail.

We visited shortly and got to see Uncle Ted and Aunt Millie.

And the Hub's cousins Rich and Rosie.

Nope not done yet, you hangin in there? So after our quick visit we made the 20 minute drive back to my granparents' city and had McDonald's for dinner at Bella's request. Papa Bear was happy to treat! My dad captured this sweet picture of Brynnie and her Mormor while we were there!Phew. Can you believe I'm not even done yet?! I think I'll give y'all a break and finish up the details of our trip on Thurday! Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

It's Not Me Monday time! This fun blog idea was created by MckMama for all of us out there that need to come clean, or would like to, rather. We all have things out there that we can't believe we've done or we swore we'd never do, why not share it with the blog world, then visit MckMama's site to see what others are admitting to!

So not a whole lot of Not Me things this week. Our summer has finally NOT arrived. And we have NOT been enjoying the outside and trying to hit some kind of water element each and every day!

Due to the extremely NOT hot weather we've been having, the girls have NOT been spending a lot of their time unclothed (indoors of course). Cooler for them and less laundry for me!

This last week in an effort to empty our fridge and pantry before leaving for our trip my girls DID NOT experience some very creative and repetitive meals. They are NOT completely over Mac and Cheese and hotdogs for awhile.

Also on one of our NOT hotter days we celebrated eating a good dinner with some delicious V8 Fusion Juice popsicles! Since the kiddos were already in their "summer suits" it was fun and easy.

Oh and I must add, I always keep very clean, well kept, and dressed to the T children. : ) I would never just let snot run down their faces.How do you get popsicle juice on your back?Looks like I had a lot more NOT MEs than I thought! : )I also must share that I never let my weeds get higher than my bushes.Can you even tell what's the bush and what's the weed?I most certainly DO NOT not garden and leave that to my lawn boy, aka the Hubs. And he DID NOT have a lot of work in front of him yesterday!

Friday, June 26, 2009

Okay, like I mentioned Day three of our trip was a crazy one. So yes, you read that right, this will be Part one. : ) I've broken it up a bit just to drive you crazy not overload you with details and pictures of our day!

So first thing we did Sunday morning was, again wake up bright and early (not sure why but the girlies wouldn't sleep past 6:30 while we were there) and say Happy Father's Day to all of our daddies! This morning is when we completed our t-shirt project for Poppi. After breakfast and our project (since we had gotten up so early) we had some time to spare before our family reunion (the main reason for this visit) so someone made the suggestion of hitting a local playground. So off we went to a near by park. Bella had a grand old time playing with her Poppi, Mormor, and Auntie Lina. I think someone thrives on all the attention she gets. : ) And Brynn enjoyed watching her sister having fun and partaking in a few playground activities of her own.

Bella made a new best friend with Auntie Lina!

Something seems a little unfair here....

Brynnie enjoyed some pushes from her Mormor.

Poppi was pushing Bella and would pretend that she hit him in the face with her feet, she found this SO absolutely hilarious that it made for some great pictures!

I found this picture so funny. The grown ups were having a conversation and in swung Bella on her swing. And I just happen to catch her looking at me. : )

There's little Miley!

Peek-a-boo!

Bella amazed us all with her correct monkey bar technique, the Hubs said he barely had to support her. Those gymnastics classes are paying off! : )

Brynn doesn't really like to be held, except by mommy and daddy, and if she lets someone else its either because she has warmed up to them or had no choice. Well this weekend Poppi was the lucky one that she warmed up to. So he got his snuggles in when he could!

We had a great time!

Stay tuned for more from Day 3 of our trip! I know, I've got you on the edges of your seats don't I? : )

About Me

I used to be an elementary teacher but am now a stay-at-home mommy with three sweet baby girls. Bella is 6, Brynn is 4, and Brooklyn is 1. We also have a sweet Golden Retriever named Beckham. I have been married to the love of my life, Vincent, for almost 12 years. Although I hate the cold I am a Chicago girl through and through. And thats about all I've got!